How we judge music (or anything, really)

mysterious house producer grant (whose second album and occasional white label 12" I like) reveals his real name and that he was also half of production duo frank & tony. not particularly interesting in itself, but i was drawn to this part of the interview:

"A couple of years ago, before the Grant project was born, I was making music [and] sending it out to artists or labels I liked with zero response," he added. "I had the core feeling that one of the reasons for that was they didn't even open the files because my artist name—Anthony Collins or Frank & Tony—had too much history, for better or worse.

Funnily enough, I was kind of right on a few occasions, as in the early stages of the project a couple of tracks I sent out as demos under the Anthony Collins name got no responses. Then, they were released under the Grant moniker and got positive feedback from the same people who completely ignored them."

brings to light how we judge or pre-judge things, sometimes write it off or are attracted to it merely because of WHO the work is from, not based on the value of the actual work itself. and it certainly goes far beyond just musicians, can also apply to film directors, politicians, friends, etc.

'Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias,[Note 1] is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.'

Following on from your post - we're likely to be effected by this bias when we know information about what we hear.

I think it works against things you like as much as against things you don't like - e.g. today I was listening to 'Atlantis' by Bukem and for whatever reason I started really listening closely to it, and realised that I have not really heard it properly for a long time, because I 'write it off' as this great tune, therefore somehow boring.

another interesting aspect: what you describe is an entirely human predicament, yet I imagine we're all reluctant to acknowledge it because it would somehow taint our belief in our own ability to evaluate and critique. we may think we're music experts, but are we ever really able to stand back and critique without those confirmation biases coming into play?

Don't think confirmation biases are always necessarily bad. For instance, while adopting a subjective strategy of avoiding anything linked to 'Euro trance', 'indie rock' 'nu-rave' or Loyalist flute band music might mean you miss the odd decent tune, it also shields you from an inevitable deluge of sonic pig shit.

Also, I can overlook musicians' flaws (including dodgy political views, extreme cuntishness, drawing a 17th century pistol on drinkers in a Kentish town pub, etc) if the music's good. But, if I ever met a musician/performer whose stuff I liked, and s/he acted like an arrogant dick, I would go off their music and probably flog it on eBay / bin it, regardless of how 'objectively' amazing it might be.

one of the very few contributions I've made to this forum was about this, http://www.dissensus.com/showthread....t=essentialism At the time I was a bit obsessed with fidelity anologue audio and synthesis and trying to grasp how much bias I had. I think the concept of essentialism is applicable to pretty much everything we get enjoyment from though. Perhaps its impossible to truly enjoy anything without some abstract value attached to it.

But, if I ever met a musician/performer whose stuff I liked, and s/he acted like an arrogant dick, I would go off their music and probably flog it on eBay / bin it, regardless of how 'objectively' amazing it might be.

Question is, has this happened to you, or anyone else here? I try to avoid anyone whose work I admire for this reason.

Question is, has this happened to you, or anyone else here? I try to avoid anyone whose work I admire for this reason.

I used to like Kevin Spacey but then my cousin (who works in film production) worked with him on a set and said he was an obnoxious, disrespectful, terrible person. That really changed my feelings about him, didn't see any of his films after that. BTW, this was a few years before all the sexual harassment stuff came out.

Question is, has this happened to you, or anyone else here? I try to avoid anyone whose work I admire for this reason.

Happened with a writer I really liked. Flogged his books online shortly after.

Musically, not really, but like you and MisterSloane, I do my best to avoid them - apart from Shane McGowan (who was so wasted he could barely stand) , Little Annie (who's lovely) and Mark E Smith (major gamble, but he was funny and very cool), I've never really approached musos *. I was at a Whitehouse gig around 2000, having a pint and waiting for someone to show up, when a certain power electronics 'star' bounded over, all smiles, before realising it was a case of mistaken identity. He then went from friendly to really narky, which I found baffling. But I didn't have any of his records anyway, so didn't really care much.